Ward's love for pool greater than pain in shoulder

MURRIETA -- Murrieta Valley senior Eileen Ward will probably not
win an individual league title at Thursday's Southwestern League
swim finals at Temescal Canyon.

Just participating in the league finals will be reward enough
for Ward.

Ward, who was named the team's Most Valuable Swimmer after her
freshman year in which she nearly qualified for the CIF-Southern
Section Division III meet, began to experience pain in her left
shoulder during her sophomore year. She kept swimming, but the pain
increased.

Ward learned after the season that she had a torn rotator cuff
and needed to have scar tissue removed from her shoulder.

The orthopedic surgeon who performed the surgery recommended
that she stop swimming competitively. So as a junior, she became
the Nighthawks' team manager. It was a position she did not
enjoy.

"It hurt to watch the league finals," Ward said. "I wanted to be
a part of it."

Entering her senior year, Ward decided she would trade her
emotional pain for physical and jump back in the pool.

Before the injury, Ward swam up to four hours a day between high
school and club practice. This season, she is not allowed to swim
for more than an hour, nor practice more than four days a week.
During meets, Ward usually does not swim a full slate of
events.

"My coach always has to tell me to get out of the pool," Ward
said. "I always say, 'I'm fine,' and she says, 'No, you are not'
and makes me get out of the pool."

Ward realized that she would not be the swimmer she was when she
was a freshman, but that did not deter a comeback.

Throughout the season, Ward took a back seat to many of her
teammates who were earning CIF times. At the Nighthawks final dual
meet of the season at Elsinore, she stepped to the forefront.

"We saw that we needed Brittany (McGrorty) to swim the fly so we
talked to her and her mother and decided to swim her in the 500,"
Murrieta Valley coach Genevieve Barrow said. "Usually, once you
swim her in the 500 she is spent. She needed to get second place in
the 500, we didn't care what her time was, it was the points we
needed."

After the race, Ward had to use the ladder to get out of the
pool. In quite a bit of pain, Ward iced down her shoulder, which
sometimes experiences numbness after a race.

"That used to be my favorite event," Ward said. "After 200
yards, I was barely able to get my arm out of the water. By the
end, I was totally shot."

Barrow scratched Ward out of her remaining two events and told
her she was done for the day. However, before the 200 relay Ward
approached Barrow and asked if she could swim in the relay.

After talking to Ward's mother, Barrow put Ward back onto one of
the team's 200 free relay teams. Ward went out and swam the best 50
split on the relay team.

Before the final event, the 400 free relay, Ward again
approached Barrow and asked to swim in the event.

"I was really against it," Barrow said. "She really had to
convince me to let her do it."

Murrieta needed to finish first and third in the event to win
the meet. The Nighthawks top team captured first. It was up to Ward
to earn that third place finish for the second team. She entered
the anchor leg a body length behind Elsinore's second team.

At the end of her 100, Ward edged Elsinore's Kristen Haldenwang
at the wall for third place and an apparent Murrieta win.

"I could see people running up and down the pool screaming and
cheering," Ward said. "I knew I was getting close."

Her split for the relay was a 58.44, a lifetime best. In fact,
Ward had never broken the minute barrier before Wednesday's relay.
In the blink of an eye, Ward saw two of her teammates jump into the
water to celebrate the team's win.

However, with two relay teams still completing the last lap of
the race, Ward knew her team would be disqualified. A combination
of pain and disappointment led Ward to hyperventilate and pass out
on the pool deck. Ward has had her left arm in a sling ever
since.

Ward says she is determined to remove the sling in time for
league finals, even though it is likely she will need more surgery
after the season.

In the fall, Ward will begin classes at UC-Riverside. As a high
school freshman, a college swimming career was something that was
not out of the question. As a college freshman, it will not be an
option.

"Things happen for a reason," Ward said. "It wasn't meant for
me. I'm working on becoming a certified lifeguard. I also want to
coach.

"I don't want to leave this sport."

Adrian Pomery can be reached at (909) 676-4315, ext. 2630, or
apomery@nctimes.com.